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The Calgary-based airline announced Wednesday it has won eight coveted landing slot-pairs for New York’s LaGuardia Airport as part of a bidding auction held by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said WestJet president and CEO Gregg Saretsky in a news release. “Our ability to now serve New York demonstrates we are focused on delivering on our business traveller strategy.”

Each slot permits one landing and one takeoff each day, so WestJet will be able to offer eight round-trip flights.

It’s not clear where in Canada the new flights will land.

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WestJet is not saying how much it paid in the bidding auction for the slots at LaGuardia, though Bloomberg is reporting it paid $17.6 million (U.S.). The airline is now finalizing details to ensure U.S. customs pre-clearance from Canada. Exact schedules will be announced later.

Jeff Straebler, an independent aviation analyst in Stamford, Conn., called WestJet a “dark horse” of sorts.

“WestJet was always the credible dark horse at LaGuardia, given a strong cash position and its stepping up competition against Air Canada for ‘golden triangle’ traffic — Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa,” Straebler said.

“LaGuardia service to any of these cities will be a nice complement.”

The new flights will put the discount airline in direct competition with Air Canada, which was not permitted to bid because it already flies out of the airport.

WestJet has offered service to the New York area, but the final leg from Toronto to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport was on partner American Airlines.

Air Canada currently flies 13 round-trips between Toronto and LaGuardia on weekdays as well as several round-trip flights between Ottawa and Montreal to the New York airport.

In addition, Air Canada also flies to nearby Newark, N.J., from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.

JetBlue was the other winning bidder – getting eight landing slot-pairs at LaGuardia and also eight for Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. It paid $72 million (U.S.) for those slots, $40 million for Reagan and $32 million for the New York airport.

Porter Airlines did not take part because it doesn’t have U.S. pre-clearance ability for flights out of the Toronto island airport.

Flights at both LaGuardia and Reagan are capped by U.S. federal rules, so airlines must buy or trade landing rights to expand.

Delta Air Lines Inc. was required to give up the landing and takeoff rights to win U.S. approval for a trade of slots with US Airways Group Inc. at the two airports.

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